Monterey Time Machine not working

I use CCC too: a tool like this is mandatory when you want to back up external drives. And it is oh so fast and efficient. I use it so the separate items on the backup are not erased when changes are made. Great when managing photo's and video's a lot.

You can use Carbon Copy Cloner to backup your data volume to the external SSD. It can be set to run at a given time or repeatedly throughout the day. If the external SSD is large enough you could partition it and backup each device to a different volume. That way you've wouldn't be driving without a seatbelt so to speak.

I have found that the safe mode back-up works as well (NAS and external drives). This is a common issue apparently and needs to be addressed by Apple ASAP. Time machine is a great feature when working properly.

I used MacOS Monterey on my old laptop, a 2019 MacBook Pro 16 with intel chip and time machine worked fine. I got the new 2021 MacBook Pro 16 with M1 chip and I have this same problem. I no longer have the 2019 laptop to compare.

I have a brand new M1 (24-inch, 2021) and safe mode did not work for 2 SSDs and an AirPort Extreme. However, I reformatted all of my backup drives and was starting brand new backups; might have to do with that. Time Machine goes through the process, reaches around 85-90%, and then "Cleans Up,", but there are no accessible files on the SSD. It's backing something up since available memory shows being much less than the full capacity, but Finder reports "0" items.

I did a session with Apple this morning and reported everything after following all of their standard checklist suggestions. I wish there was an easier way to report software issues without them assuming it is somehow something you are doing wrong.

Same Problem.

Working fine until upgraded to Monterey.TM then after 3 days it decided the disk was full. Despite reformatting etc still never completed.

However, reformatting the drive then starting in Safe Mode and doing a backup appears to have kicked it into life and so far it is still working, though early days.

(External SSD drive via USB and encrypted backup)

Same Problem for me, Since upgrading to Monterey I cant access my older backups, as it keeps asking for the encryption password, which I know 100% is correct and it rejects. So I deleted my old backup and decided to make a fresh backup, but it wont work, and if I tried without encryption. It starts and wont complete, also it doesn't run when the computer is in sleep mode with the lid closed, (plugged in).. It all worked flawlessly before upgrading, come on Apple sort this out asap......

The Solution is: Dont enable reduced Startup Security.

I did this only because the WD MyCloud Home required this. This Wd Software is programmed very bad.

After i switched to Full Startup Security TM Worked normal again!

I also have this issue,

I was running macOS Big Sur when the 19 October 2021 backup was made.

The disk to which I am backing up is a Seagate Backup Plus Drive with 1 TB of Storage, my Mac with 512 GB of storage, but now, only 128 GB out of 1 TB storage is remaining.

Yesterday, a successful backup occurred, but the latest backup is still on '19 October 2021'. The disk, in Finder, appeared to have the latest snapshot on 19 October 2021. Today, the date was updated, but today, after several backup attempts, the date of the latest backup is still yesterday. But I noticed that those attempts were successful, from the 'Enter Time Machine' option.

I am using:

• MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020)
• macOS Monterey 12.0.1

I faced the same issue today. I made multiple attempts to back up, facing the same issue.

Here are screenshots:

Note: It is currently the 13th of November here.

So, the backups are indeed successful for me, if I enter Time Machine.

Seems to work for some, not for others (not for me).

I have Monterey running TM flawlessly on an Intel iMac and it is failing every time on an M1Pro MBP14. Have erased the external drive repeatedly and tried different formats.

My machine as FileVault on; I want to use Encrypted and Case Sensitive APFS on the backup drive (5TB HDD). TM shouldn't be sensitive to any kind of formatting, correct? Is there a reason NOT to encrypt or use case-sensitive for the backup drive? (That would defeat the purpose of those settings.) (Failing = not showing backups; the disk storage indicates that they are there, just not displaying; the app TM either shows no change or is permanently trying to complete a backup.)

I did have success with a limited backup (exclusion of just a few files). It subsequently failed to repeat backup too.

I have spent hours with an Apple tech and we got nowhere so far.

I will eagerly wait a solution from this list if not from Apple in an upgrade that stabilizes their software.

I too spend countless hours trying to solve the problem.  Finally, here’s what works for me:

Firstly, I haven’t got FileVault on.

Secondly, I named my time machine disk “T5 TM” - you can name it anything you like.

In Disk Utilities, formatted by entire external drive to USB External Physical Disk GUID Partition Map. (My entire external drive is called “Samsung Portable SSD”

When complete, you should then see a container containing your actual drive.  Mine looks like:

Samsung Portable SSD

       Container disk6

                 T5 TM

Formatter the T5 TM drive to APFS - nothing else NOT ENCRYPTED.

In Time Machine Preferences, if you have used a disk with the same name before i.e. “T5 TM” and it is still showing in the list of time machine disks, remove it first.

Now add the APFS disk (T5 TM), tick the Encrypted box and fill in your password and reminder.

PLEASE NOTE:  I found that the first backup NEVER completed!  The solution was to boot up in Safe Mode, do the backup and then restart as normal.  In fact, I always backup in safe mode.  I hope Apple solves this in their next Monterey update.

Good luck!

I'm glad you got yours to work.

I've tried safe booting and running a TM backup. Didn't work.

I want FileVault on and need encryption on the external drive. So, very hard to compare apples (Apple?) and oranges (lemons?)

I have something similar working in my environment (see below for details). The Time Machine volume is encrypted, case-sensitive, and has a quota specified (I used a Terminal command to create the Time Machine Volume). Also, I didn't have to use Safe Mode for the first Time Machine backup to complete.

- Pie Lover

I have the same issue, both with 11.6.1 and then after updating to 12.0.1. However, I also could not get TM backup to USB SSD to finish in safe mode either. I get the same behavior - backup runs until the end and then faults with message that "Waiting to complete first backup". Checking in disk utility shows data on disk, but Finder does not show any filename on the disk.

I was finally able to fix my "Waiting for First Backup" woes in Monterey by adding this path to the exclusions list. Worked for me at least after lots of digging through error logs. I also had to first boot into Safe Mode and start with a freshly formatted external backup drive (as discussed previously in this thread).

Library/Containers/com.apple.findmy.FindMyWidgetPeople

I'm running an M1 Pro machine with macOS 12.0.1